Chapter Text
Rousseau's was louder than usual. Mardi Gras was about to hit in full swing, and if you lived in New Orleans? Well, let's just say there would be no end in sight.
And that was just for the humans.
"Okay guys," Poppy said, bringing a round of drinks over. "If these don't prep your liver for Mardi Gras, then nothing will."
"My liver was probably dead before I became a vampire," Josh replied. "But thanks, Poppy."
As Poppy walked away, Morgana took a sip of her drink and nearly choked on it. "Sweet Jesus. You could kill someone with that."
Shooting her a grin, Vincent rubbed his hands together. "Okay, so we should probably get back to the Mardi Gras prep."
"Come on, Vincent, we got this," Josh said. "It's gone off without a hitch for, what, seven years now?"
"That's because we haven't taken it for granted for seven years. Let me remind you, moments of prosperity are invariably followed by times of great pain, unless we remain vigilant."
"Thank you, Mr. Buzzkill," Freya muttered, taking a sip of her own drink. She made a face. Morgana pointed at her.
"Told you," she said. "But he's right. It's been a nice seven years. I'd like to keep it going."
"Thank you," Vincent said. "Now, what do you two got for Mardi Gras?"
"The witches will be working on their float in the City of the Dead," Freya replied.
"The werewolves in the bayou," Hayley said.
They looked to Josh. He was busy on his phone.
"Josh?" Morgana asked.
He looked up. "Yeah?"
"This is the part where you're supposed to say that the vampires are gonna steer clear of both," Vincent said, annoyed.
"Yeah, uh," Josh replied, glancing back down at his phone. "Actually, maybe we should offer them some sort of incentive."
"Seven years of peace and prosperity not enough?" Hayley asked dryly.
"Well it is, but we could always use more daylight rings."
"Is this a negotiation, Josh?" Vincent asked.
Josh looked back down at his phone instead of responding. Morgana leaned back in her seat. "How's Marcel doing?"
He looked up at her, eyes wide. She raised an eyebrow.
"First of all," he began, "that was very rude to read that--"
"First of all," she cut him off. "I didn't read anything. Second of all, you're forgetting my history with Marcel. I know his strategies. No offense, Josh, but you can't tell me you suddenly decided to try to negotiate for peace on your own."
He put his phone away and rolled his eyes.
"See, this is what I'm always talking about," Vincent said. "Marcel means Rebekah. Rebekah means Kol and Elijah. And I don't even want to think about Klaus right now, 'cause apparently he's lost his mind."
"We don't know if those rumors are true," Morgana and Freya said at the same time.
"I know that we need to make sure that they stay as far away from this city as possible. And Freya, I'll be Mr. Buzzkill if it means reminding everyone here that the magic that those four carry inside of them, if we put just the two of them in the same place, it is a ticking bomb."
"Relax," Morgana groaned. "Rebekah and Marcel are in New York, Kol is with Davina in Belize, Elijah is in France, and Klaus is...wherever the hell he is."
The bitterness in her voice might have been a bit strong.
"The point is, we're fine," she finished.
Poppy came back with a plate of food and set it down in front of Hayley. "Declan sent these over to tide you over until your date tomorrow."
Hayley smiled, looking over to the kitchen where Declan was.
"Oh my God," Josh said. "I swear, if you don't marry that guy, I will."
"Baby steps," Hayley chided. "He's human. Life's complicated enough."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her buzzing phone. "Hope's school. Like I said."
She stood and walked away to answer. When she turned back to the table, Morgana knew by the look on her face that something had happened.
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"So what did you say?" Morgana asked.
Freya hesitated and continued filling up the small box. She'd invited Morgana and Vincent over to the bell tower to talk. Keelin had been in Lebanon for the last six months, and the medical program she was working with had asked her to come back for six more. She'd asked Freya to come with her this time.
"Wait a minute, are you packing?" Vincent asked.
"I'm organizing," Freya sighed. "I said I don't know. But Keelin, she stayed in the city for six years waiting for me. She deserves this. And I really want to go, but now that Hope's gotten herself into trouble..."
"Wait a minute, what kind of trouble?"
"She was helping a Crescent boy," Morgana replied. "He was being bullied, so she gave him some of her blood."
"So he's a hybrid?"
She winced. "Yeah."
"Vince, she knows it was wrong, okay?" Freya said.
"No," he replied. "No, no, no, no ma'am, Miss Pam. Freya, you ain't going nowhere. You're gonna get on the phone with Keelin, and you're gonna tell her to bring her butt back here, okay, because you can't go anywhere. The three of us, we are a team, right?"
Morgana nodded, frowning.
"I know," Freya sighed.
"We are the glue that holds this city together, and you just can't go."
"Hope made a mistake, Vincent," Morgana said. "It'll get taken care of. That's only two things, and everyone knows bad things come in threes, so..." She trailed off when Grendel, perched on her shoulder like always, growled at something behind her. She turned and saw a vase of flowers wilting rapidly. Freya went and grabbed the vase. She pulled the flowers out and set them down.
"Is there anything else you feel like sharing?" Vincent asked.
"Hope's coming home," Morgana replied. "Just until this whole thing is over," she added, seeing the look on his face.
"It's nothing to worry about," Freya insisted, pouring the water from the vase into a basin.
At least, it was water. Now they watched as it turned into blood.
"Hope is coming home," Vincent said, counting off with his fingers. "She created a hybrid." He pointed at the blood. "One, two, three."
"Yeah," Freya mumbled.
Morgana pinched the bridge of her nose.
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Raised voices from a corner of the bar made Morgana and Vincent glance over. A small group of some vampires and werewolves were getting heated. She cursed under her breath. Freya came in and sat next to her.
"So I talked to Rebekah about the blood," she said. "Klaus got too close to Elijah."
"And so he tempts fate while his daughter wakes sleeping dogs," Vincent muttered. "That's great."
"Yeah."
He gestured to the group in the corner. "You see this over here? What seems to be the problem? This town is just going from zero to sixty in no time flat. I'm not surprised to see that nosy vampire Greta Sienna is all up in the mix. This town is just itching for some sort of fight, and if we don't do something--"
"Vincent," Freya interrupted him. "I get that this is serious, but I'm fighting for my life here."
They stared at her.
"I love Keelin," she continued. "And if I don't go see her now, I'm gonna lose her. Look, I am terrified that if I walk out this door, everything is gonna go to hell, but I know you two can do this without me. Right now I just need to hear that leaving isn't gonna make me a bad sister, a bad aunt or a bad friend, and, I don't know, maybe I'll get the guts to pick myself for once."
Morgana opened her mouth to respond, but Poppy chose to come over at that moment. "Hey guys, I am not digging the vibe in here."
They all glanced over at the group.
"More of a live and let live vampire, so I'm cutting out."
"Good idea," Morgana replied. "How much we owe you?"
Poppy made a face. "Oh, shut up, it's on me. Peace out."
Morgana smiled and waved. Poppy was cute. She turned back to Freya.
"Look," she said. "We have no idea how this is gonna go. No one does. So get out now while you still can, 'cause--"
She didn't get to finish, because Freya nearly knocked her off the barstool with the force of her hug.
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Jesus Christ bless them, the seven years of peace was about to come to an end. Morgana didn't think there was any stopping it. Maybe not even slowing it down.
The kid, Henry, the one Hope turned into a hybrid, had killed Poppy. Completely on accident, of course, as he had yet to learn to control his bloodlust. However, what was done was done, and Poppy's family, along with a few other vampires, wanted justice in the form of vengeance.
Morgana had let Hayley handle that one, as she was the alpha and, as such, the voice of the werewolves in this situation. Henry would not be handed over, and she would teach him self-control as the only other hybrid in the city.
That evening, Grendel bounded ahead of her as they entered the courtyard. Hope was sitting by the fountain drawing. Grendel jumped up next to her and forced his way on to her lap, purring and pushing his head against her hands. She laughed and scratched his head.
"How's the jailbird doing?" Morgana asked.
"About as well as you'd expect for being cooped up all day," Hope replied. Her gaze went behind Morgana's shoulder. "Auntie Ana?"
Morgana turned, and her mouth fell open. The water in the fountain had turned to blood. "Shit."
She pulled out her phone to text Freya and Hayley, but Freya walked in. She took one look at the fountain and stopped in her tracks. Morgana turned back to Hope. Grendel was growling low in his throat.
"Where's your mom?" She asked.
"She went outside to make a call," Hope replied, still looking at the fountain.
Morgana went out of the compound to look for Hayley. What she found instead made her blood run cold. She went back to the compound and handed Hope Hayley's cracked phone.
"I found this in the street," she said quietly, digging out her own phone to send a text to the person she hadn't heard from in years.
Emergency. Call me now.
Right as she hit send, Hayley's phone started ringing. Hope answered it. "Dad?"
She paused. "Yeah, so are we. I don't know where she is. She's missing."
And as she hung up, the sky opened up and began to rain blood.